Kia Corthron
Playwright

 "As a playwright I had several small projects - a contribution to a collaborative work about WikiLeaks, two monologues related to fictional 18th Century slaves as part of a project connected with New York City's African Burial Ground. The Siena Art Institute provided me with a wonderful space - both my studio and apartment - to create my work from initial research to final draft. And the gorgeous, medieval, art-rich city of Siena was so magically inspiring!" - Kia Corthron

Kia Corthron is a playwright from New York, USA. Her plays include A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick (Playwrights Horizons co-production with The Play Company and the Culture Project), Trickle (Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Marathon), Moot the Messenger (Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival), Light Raise the Roof (New York Theatre Workshop), Snapshot Silhouette (Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre), Slide Glide the Slippery Slope (ATL Humana, Mark Taper Forum), The Venus de Milo Is Armed (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Breath, Boom (London's Royal Court Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Yale Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre and elsewhere), Force Continuum (Atlantic Theater Company), Splash Hatch on the E Going Down (New York Stage and Film, Baltimore's Center Stage, Yale Rep, London's Donmar Warehouse), Seeking the Genesis (Goodman Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club), Digging Eleven (Hartford Stage Company), Life by Asphyxiation (Playwrights Horizons), Wake Up Lou Riser (Delaware Theatre Company), Come Down Burning (American Place Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre), Cage Rhythm (Sightlines/The Point in the Bronx).  Awards and fellowships include the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Creative Arts Residency (Italy), Dora Maar Residency (France), MacDowell Colony, Playwrights Center’s McKnight National Residency, Masterwork Productions Award, the Wachtmeister Award, Columbia College/Goodman Theatre Fellowship, Barbara Barondess MacLean Foundation Award, AT&T On Stage Award, Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, Mark Taper Forum's Fadiman Award, National Endowment for the Arts/TCG, Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, New Professional Theatre Playwriting Award, Callaway Award, and in television a Writers Guild Outstanding Drama Series Award and Edgar Allan Poe Award for The Wire.  Poor La Patrie was recently workshopped by the Working Theater and Two River Theater Company.  Kia is currently a member of the Dramatists Guild Council and of the Writers Guild of America, and an alumnus of New Dramatists.

Publications on Kia Corthron's work:

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